


Reality Dating

by IvoryRaven



Series: Tomarry/Harrymort one-shots [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Awkward Harry Potter, F/F, Gay Harry Potter, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Lesbian Ginny Weasley, Lesbian Hermione Granger, M/M, Speed Dating, Tom Riddle is Not Voldemort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:48:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23455795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IvoryRaven/pseuds/IvoryRaven
Summary: Ginny convinces Harry to come on a reality dating show with her.He goes just because she is, not expecting anything to come of it.But who is that handsome stranger, Tom Riddle?
Relationships: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle, Hermione Granger/Pansy Parkinson, Luna Lovegood/Ginny Weasley
Series: Tomarry/Harrymort one-shots [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1684411
Comments: 10
Kudos: 302
Collections: Corona Challenge





	Reality Dating

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [elements](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elements/pseuds/elements) in the [CoronaChallenge](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/CoronaChallenge) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> In which Harry Potter signs up for a reality dating show. It's all Ginny's fault, but he has to admit... the bloke is damn cute.

“Come on Ten Nights of Love!” she’d said. “It’ll be fun!” she’d said.

So Harry had, just to appease her. Ginny was a good friend, and she needed the cash, he needed the cash - it was only a dating show. They’d be there for two weeks and then they’d leave, a thousand Galleons richer.

So he’d gone to the filming site expecting eight unexciting, boring suitors to be there along with him and Ginny.

What he hadn’t expected was Tom Riddle.

The man was bloody perfection. His finely chiseled face, his liquid silver eyes, his plump lips, his refined but powerful physique.

Suddenly Harry couldn’t wait to start his series of nine dates - one of which would be with Tom Riddle.

Ginny leaned over. “Like what you see, huh?” she said, her eyebrows raised.

Harry blushed. “Like you don’t fancy that blonde girl!”

Ginny smiled. “I’ll seduce her. You focus on getting yours.”

Harry shook his head. Ginny had taken a few years before she became the confident woman she was, but now she was a renowned member of the Holyhead Harpies. He had come to see her as a sister and was proud of the progress she’d made.

He tried to look strong and brave as the cameras rolled, introducing each of them.

Ginny was introduced first, then the blonde she’d been eyeing up - Luna Lovegood, her name was, then frizzy-haired bookworm Hermione Granger, then stoic Pansy Parkinson, and lastly tall, muscular Daphne Greengrass.

The camera crew turned to the men. 

There was Viktor Krum, from Bulgaria, Draco Malfoy, who was blonde and fit, and Ron Weasley, a freckled redhead. Then there was Tom Riddle, who seemed more perfect the more Harry looked at him.

When they went to introduce Harry, he tripped over his own feet and fell on his face.

A hand touched his shoulder, and a smooth voice asked, “Harry? Are you okay?”

Harry stumbled to his feet to see Tom Riddle in all his glory, leaning over him in concern. And yes, he was still leaning over Harry - the man was ridiculously tall (Harry wasn’t short! Really!)

“I’m fine,” said Harry, hoping his voice wasn’t as husky as it sounded to him. By the quirk of Tom’s lips, he could tell his hopes were unfounded.

“The participants will go on a series of nine dates over the course of the next two weeks, and at the end… the choices!” said the host, an excitable man named Albus Dumbledore. “Now, please stand by… the first dates our participants will go on…”

“Luna Lovegood… and Hermione Granger!”

There was applause from the live audience.

“Pansy Parkinson… and Viktor Krum!”

Harry tuned out the noise, hoping and hoping he would be paired with Tom Riddle: tall, dark, and handsome. He snapped to attention when they called his name.

“Harry Potter… and Ginny Weasley!”

Harry sighed and exchanged glances with Ginny. He was gay, she was lesbian - but as per the show’s rules, they still had to have a decent date.

He crossed to stand with her and look at the cameras. “Wonder what they have planned for us,” he murmured.

He didn’t have to wonder for long. As soon as the cameras stopped rolling the producer walked up to each pair, and when he reached Harry and Ginny, he told them, “the two of you will be having a romantic seaside picnic.”

Ginny gagged as soon as he was out of hearing range. “Romantic? You and me?’

Harry rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right. Well, at least we can make the best of it.”

And make the best of it they did. The two had the Ultimate Sand Castle Contest (which Ginny won, she was vicious at building tall mountains of sand), dared each other to do various things involving the salt water (which Harry won) and raced each other down the beach. Harry won the race, but only, Ginny made sure to tell him - and Harry agreed - because his longer legs gave him an advantage.

After their ‘date’ they had to sit and be interviewed about each other.

“Ginny’s a friend of mine, actually,” said Harry. “I don’t think I could ever see her as a girlfriend.”

“What are the qualities you look for in a partner, then, Harry?”

“Well-” Harry blushed. “I like to be the one spoiled. Any potential boyfriend of mine will have to be clever, and hot, and strong.”

“Clever, hot, and strong, huh? Well we’ve got quite the lineup for you! Is there anyone you think has potential, out of our pool of participants? I’m sure viewers noticed your moment with Tom Riddle.”

“Oh - well. I’m… kind of clumsy, he was just helping me out.”

The interviewer laughed. “You saw it here, Harry Potter stumbled into love’s arms!”

Harry’s face flamed. 

“Takes something special to have that happen to you,” continued the interviewer. “All right, folks. This is Harry Potter - our Golden Boy!”

There was cheering and whooping as Harry shook hands with the interviewer and the next segment began.

Ginny met him off-camera. “You’re such a blushing virgin!” she hissed.

“Am not!” Harry said back.

Ginny held up her hands. “I’m not fighting you for him. No offense, Harry, but… he’s a dude.”

Harry sniggered. “S’not my fault he’s sex on legs!”

She smirked. “Sex on legs? Well folks, you saw it here, Harry Potter thinks Tom Riddle is sex on legs!” she said in a surprisingly good emulation of the interviewer.

The next date Harry had was with Viktor Krum. They went indoor ice skating. Viktor was friendly enough, and sure, he was cute, but he wasn’t really Harry’s ‘type.’ And, as Viktor confessed to Harry while they made laps around the rink, Viktor was straight. And he fancied another participant - Hermione Granger.

“Hermi-own-ninny is a beautiful girl,” Viktor told Harry. Harry couldn’t really see the appeal, but that was okay: he had no delusions of that ever being a thing.

Harry went on six other dates, none of which had him particularly impressed with another person: there was Luna Lovegood, Ginny’s crush - who seemed quite dreamy and odd in her head, but she seemed to return Ginny’s affections, since she wanted to know about Harry’s friendship with Ginny, and things Ginny liked. Pansy Parkinson was an academic type; she was studying to be a biologist. Harry tried to hold himself back from judging her too harshly on her looks; he was a gay man - maybe her upturned nose was attractive on a woman?

Daphne Greengrass seemed to find Harry quite charming, and clung to his arm for their whole time together. Draco Malfoy, too, seemed to think Harry was lovely, and was quite cuddly. Harry had to work quite hard to keep Draco’s hands out of his pants. Although he wouldn’t mind Draco for a one-night stand, the blonde was too needy for Harry’s taste. 

Hermione Granger was a pretty girl, even Harry noticed that. She was studying animal psychology and had come on the show as a dare. Apparently one of her friends in university dared her to sign up while they were drinking, and by the time she’d sobered up there was no backing out. She swore to Harry she would get back at that friend - “Padma will die of envy when she reads my thesis!”

Ron Weasley was just… well. He wasn’t all that good looking, he, like Viktor Krum, seemed infatuated with Hermione Granger, and he was a redhead. Harry did not like redheads. He couldn’t explain it but dark hair? Delicious. They both shared a love of pranks and Quidditch, and Harry left their date with the feeling that while Ron wasn’t boyfriend material, he’d made a friend on the show.

Then there was Harry’s date with Tom. Tom was tall. Harry would have to stand on tiptoes if he was going to kiss him.

“Hello, Harry,” Tom had said smoothly, coming to pick him up for their brunch. He’d come right up to the cottage the show had Harry staying in, with a bunch of pink and yellow roses in his hand, and given them to Harry with a heart-melting smile.

Harry could barely breathe.

Tom’s voice was pure sex appeal. His face was gorgeous, and Harry’d never seen such rock-hard abs even on full-time Quidditch players. 

Tom had Harry’s heart fluttering in his chest when he slid his hand onto Harry’s back, when he reached to take his hand, when he smiled at it across the table.

All throughout the brunch Harry just wanted to wrap his arms around the man, kiss the smile off his face. He envied Tom’s straw the feel of his mouth. He envied the pineapple the man was eating the opportunity to touch such pure white teeth.

And Tom kept smiling at Harry! It was driving him mad, the man was so close, yet so far!

On the final episode, when all ten participants stood as they had at the beginning, and were asked if any couples had got together, Harry’s heart sunk like a submarine with the floor blown out. He’d missed his chance.

Hermione Granger shyly took Pansy Parksinson’s hand, and the crowd cheered. Viktor Krum and Ron Weasley looked as if their whole world had collapsed.

Luna leaned back into Ginny’s embrace, and Ginny went in to kiss Luna’s neck. Harry could have sworn several live audience members swooned.

And then -

And then -

Tom stepped forward. In his hand was a single red rose.

“Harry,” he started, and all the world disappeared but Tom standing before him with a rose in his hand.

“Harry… when we went on our date I brought yellow and pink roses. Now, I offer you this red rose: love.”

Harry was breathing hard. “Tom,” he whispered. “For me?”

Tom smiled, ever inviting.

Harry stepped forward, and plucked the rose from Tom’s fingers. He examined it, then turned his gaze back to Tom. “Thank you.”

And he flung himself into Tom’s arms.


End file.
